Midwest Nature Quote of the Week

In some of the quiet places, where leaf mold is heavy and old logs decay on the forest floor, lives the world's most savage mammal. It's a ravening little beast seldom seen by man; an irascible, twittering phantom that kills incessantly. Even the weasels and great cats can't match its talent for bloodletting, for each day it must devour its own weight in food or starve.

But the same nature that grants a genius for death always stops short of fatal perfection. This terrible hunter--the shrew--may weigh no more than a dime.

John Madon, Stories from Under the Sky